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Dance Copyright Enforced by DMCA

Posted by Zonk on from the seventh-layer-of-awesome dept.

goombah99 writes "The "creator" of the Dance move known as the electric slide has filed a DMCA based takedown notice for videos he deems to infringe and because they show "bad dancing". He is also seeking compensation from the use of the dance move at a wedding celebration shown on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Next up, the Funky Chicken, the moonwalk, and the Hustle? More seriously, does the DMCA have any limit on its scope?"

7 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. Another Misleading Article Title by Babbster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1) The DMCA is not an organization, it is a law. Laws get enforced. They don't go around doing the enforcing.
    2) The claim has yet to be upheld (enforced) by any court or other governmental body.
    3) Even if the letter is acted upon and the video is removed, that still doesn't indicate whether or not the DMCA is being properly applied (if not, then the DMCA can't be demonized in this situation). All it means is that someone decided removing the video was the easiest way to handle a potential problem.

    1. Re:Another Misleading Article Title by Babbster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I understand that, but the implication of the title is that this particular case is a "done deal," as if showing a dance for a few seconds in a video has been legally established as copyright infringement covered by the DMCA. It also implies that somehow the DMCA itself is at fault, which isn't the case. The DMCA didn't make dance steps copyrightable, any more than it made videos of said dances potential copyright infringement. All the DMCA provides in this particular case is a mechanism for the copyright holder to enforce his or her copyright - that isn't a bad thing, though obviously, and IMO in this case, it can be used badly.

  2. YouTube Revenue Share Will Really Make This Bad! by robotsrule · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When YouTube/Google turn on their revenue sharing plan for video makers, this is going to get ugly. One of the tenets for "fair use" is whether or not the use of the copyrighted material was whether the intent was of a commercial nature or not. Once revenue sharing starts, millions of legally "naive" video uploaders are suddenly going to find themselves thrown into the nasty side of the fair use litmus test. Watch how the DMCA takedowns and litigation filings skyrocket once money is involved (as it always does).

    --


    Robert Oschler - RobotsRule.com
  3. This is awesome by greg_barton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The more the law is used like this, the more it will be seen as absurd. When the DMCA is used to stomp on uses of technology the wider public can't understand it. When it's used to stop you from being filmed dancing a certain way in public it's understandable by everyone.

  4. Re:Read the bloody article FFS! by belmolis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If people are not doing the correct steps, they are not violating his copyright. He may have a trademark case, since the owner of a trademark can compel people not to use his trademark incorrectly, but if his complaint is inaccuracy he has no copyright case.

  5. Re:This guys is lucky. by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We can submit his site as a violation of copyright. Unless he can prove that he's got the rights to use Spiderman's image.....and is that Voltron, too? I'm not sure who the other two are supposed to be.

    http://the-electricslidedance.com/sitebuilderconte nt/sitebuilderpictures/dancers.gif

    Layne

  6. Re:This guys is lucky. by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, if they aren't doing the Electric Slide correctly, maybe they aren't violating his rights. Maybe they are doing some *OTHER* dance that isn't copyrighted......and doing it right.

    So there.

    Layne